by Marcin Jakubowski, Ph.D.
“(…) It may be more desirable to pursue and promote modes of production and societal organization that are more integrated and skilled, where time is liberated for other personal and civic pursuits. A skilled worker in the information age is one who tries to piece together the disconnected elements of societal dysorganization. They are social and civic entrepreneurs who strive to acquire a broad set of skills and an integrated understanding of how the system works in order to affect a change for the better. Integrated learning towards these ends means that the student of the system is crossing disciplinary boundaries, pursuing broad, applied, experiential learning. This is the type of learning that we are creating in our organization, Open Source Ecology, Inc. Open Source Ecology refers to the integration of the natural, societal, and industrial ecologies aimed at sustainable and regenerative economics. Participatory models of production represent the core of any truly democratic society. It is only in such a system that a balance can be found between human activity and the sustainable use of natural resources. Part of this process involves the exploration of societal structures and productive activities to determine what is truly appropriate to meeting human needs. The goal is to provide human needs while liberating our time so that we can engage in exactly that which each of us wants to be doing in this life, instead of spending all of one’s time on the necessities of survival.”